The Lady Blues were sixth and the Blueboys ninth at the 2016 MWC Indoor Championships, but as hosts for the 2017 season, both the women’s and the men’s teams finished fourth. Event champions for IC were Austin Spriggs ’19 in the men’s high jump, Rachel Simpson ’17 in the women’s pole vault and Andrea Hyde ’20 in the women’s 60 meter dash. Hyde was named MWC Women’s Newcomer of the Year at the conclusion of the meet, and Caleb Rybolt ’19 was the men’s Elite 20 award winner as the top-performing MWC student-athlete in the classroom.

IC swimming and diving continued to progress, as the Blueboys ended the 2017 MWC Championships in fifth place and the Lady Blues ended the meet in sixth place. History was made for both programs as Hannah Marks ’20 and Ben Allen ’19 became the first two individual swimmers since the program was re-instituted in 2007 to make it onto the medal podium. Marks did it as the third-place finisher in the 200 IM, 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke. Allen was a third-place finisher in the 200 breaststroke as well. At the conclusion of the meet, Marks was named the MWC Women’s Newcomer of the Year and Oak Wattanasirakul ’18 was awarded the men’s Elite 20 award as the top-performing male swimmer in the classroom for a second consecutive year.

Injuries played a major role in an 11-12 campaign for the Illinois College women’s basketball team. The Lady Blues started the year 7-2, including a 4-0 start to MWC play that was highlighted by a 76-69 win over St. Norbert that brought the Green Knights’ 30-game conference winning streak to an end. After the calendar flipped to January, a number of Lady Blues were sidelined and the team went 4-10 the rest of the way. Brielle Greenleaf ’19 was a Second Team All-MWC performer in 2016-17, ranking second in the MWC in scoring with a 15.8 points per game average while ranking fifth in the conference in steals with 2.1 per game.

Last season’s leading scorer, Cody Hildebrand ’18, missed all but three games at the start of the season and the IC men’s basketball team ended with a record of 8-15 in 2016-17. After starting 3-10, the Blueboys finished 5-5 down the stretch. A 77-75 overtime victory over Lake Forest gave Head Coach Mike Worrell his 200th career victory on Jan. 25. In the home finale, Illinois College held on for a wild, 122-118, triple-overtime win over Monmouth. In that game, Mitchell Patterson ’17 had possibly the first IC triple-double in school history with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Mason Speer ’19 also set a school record in the game by playing 51 minutes.